The Bursting Pulsar (GRO J1744-28) is a low-mass x-ray binary with a period of 11.8 days. It was discovered in December 1995 by the Burst and Transient Source Experiment on the

Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory The Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) was a space observatory detecting photons with energies from 20 k eV to 30 GeV, in Earth orbit from 1991 to 2000. The observatory featured four main telescopes in one spacecraft, covering X-ra ...

, the second of the NASA Great Observatories. The pulsar is unique in that it has a "bursting phase" where it emits

gamma ray A gamma ray, also known as gamma radiation (symbol γ or \gamma), is a penetrating form of electromagnetic radiation arising from the radioactive decay of atomic nuclei. It consists of the shortest wavelength electromagnetic waves, typically ...

s and

X-ray An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 picometers to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30&nb ...

s peaking at approximately 20 bursts per hour after which the frequency of bursts drops off and the pulsar enters a

quiescent Quiescence (/kwiˈɛsəns/) is a state of quietness or inactivity. It may refer to: * Quiescence search, in game tree searching (adversarial search) in artificial intelligence, a quiescent state is one in which a game is considered stable and unl ...

phase. After a few months, the bursts reappear, though not yet with predictable regularity. The Bursting Pulsar is the only known

X-ray pulsar X-ray pulsars or accretion-powered pulsars are a class of astronomical objects that are X-ray sources displaying strict periodic variations in X-ray intensity. The X-ray periods range from as little as a fraction of a second to as much as several m ...

that is also a Type II

X-ray burster X-ray bursters are one class of X-ray binary stars exhibiting X-ray bursts, periodic and rapid increases in luminosity (typically a factor of 10 or greater) that peak in the X-ray region of the electromagnetic spectrum. These astrophysical sys ...

.F. Daigne1, P. Goldoni, P. Ferrando1, A. Goldwurm, A. Decourchelle and R. S. Warwick, ''XMM-Newton observation of the bursting pulsar GRO J1744-28 in quiescence'' Astronomy & Astrophysics, Volume 386, Number 2, May I 2002 Page 531 - 534 DOI 10.1051/0004-6361:20020223

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bursting Pulsar Pulsars X-ray binaries Sagittarius (constellation) 199512??